Lighting upgrade for Pico?

[moonyguy]

Hello Everyone,

 

My 1.6 gal pico is doing pretty well and the frags are healthy. Full details here Moonyguy's Pico

Currently I have 10w 50/50 PC bulb in the tank and am planning to upgrade to a 20w 50/50 PC bulb. I was wondering if this would be of any benifit to the corals I have now or will it allow me to keep corals that need more light? Will temperature would be a problem with higher w lights?

Second upgrade I am planning is a power head. Right now I have a aquaclear HOB filter for water current and it works pretty well for one side of the tank. I am thinking of adding a small powerhead like Rio 50 (Details here: Rio 50 ) to put some current in the dead spots. But the worry is that the tank is so small it will take a lot of room.

Would be glad if you guys could comment on the two issues and let me know the upgrades are worth it.

clear skies

Vishnu

[brandon4299]

yes temp can increase, but fanning may help or keeping a lower ambient room temp with a strong ac. You'll be suprised about pico lighting upgrades...my corals behave and hold color better under one 13w pc than they did under two...I attribute this to the spacing of the light away from the water column..being so close you just might find the upgrade is too much if you are working with a sub-gallon approach. (I need to go read your linked thread) For the 2's and 2.5's, it may be nice for some stony corals. The soft corals will not require and might not benefit from it, but I don't think it will hurt them as well. Neat setup.

 

B

[moonyguy]

Thanks a lot Brandon. I am going for a small power head to remove some dead spots in the tank. I am going to leave the lighting alone for now. Have had the tank for about 3 months now and so far no coral deaths ...except a snail and a hermit.

Vishnu